Artichoke’s Heart
Author: Suzanne Supplee
ISBN: 9780525479024
Artichoke’s Heart by Suzanne Supplee tells the story of Rosemary Goode, an overweight teenager from the South. Rosemary is not comfortable in her own skin and has a serious love affair with all things chocolate. Rosemary gets through her days by working in her mother’s hair salon and looking forward to the next time she can indulge in junk food.
After Christmas break, everything changes. Rosemary’s Aunt Mary, who constantly harrasses her about her weight buys her a weight loss book and her mother buys her a treadmill.
Rosemary’s mother is diagnosed with cancer. Rosemary goes back to school and begins to have a crush on Kyle. Everything in Rosemary’s world has turned upside down. She even becomes friends with the once popular Kay-Kay, whose perfect body inspires Rosemary to get in shape.
This book took me a little while to get into, but once I did, I was hooked.
Rosemary was such a likable character because she was incredibly relateable. What teenage girl hasn’t doubted herself and her body? Everyone has struggled with their weight or appearance in at least some point in time. The story is told from Rosemary’s perspective and it was nice to get an inside look at Rosemary’s thoughts and feelings.
I loved each of the side stories and relationships throughout this book. Rosemary’s complicated relationship with her mother and her Aunt Mary, the romance between Rosemary and Kyle and the unlikely friendship between Rosemary and Kay-Kay made the book that much more interesting.
My only complaint about this book is that I was a little confused about when in time this story was taking place. I’m not from the South, so I attributed my confusion to the differences in culture, but the book felt a little old fashioned to me. I was kind of taken aback at the way Rosemary would say “I bought it on the Internet” as if the Internet was this new invention that you could buy things from. I’m not sure, but the book felt very old fashioned, when in reality, I think it was taking place in the present. Kyle seemed a little TOO gentlemen-like to me when I think about how guys today really act. Hey, maybe it’s a Southern thing though!
4/5
Oooh! This sounds good! I might have to go get it.
Southern boys can definitely be very gentleman-like, haha, though certainly not all of them! 😉
Glad you enjoyed this one in the end — it's one of my favorites! Rosemary is a really inspirational character, I think, and I've given a lot more thought to what I'm eating after finishing Artichoke's Heart and Robin Brande's Fat Cat.
I loved this book! It was just so cute! I'm glad you liked it!
sounds like something that might motivate me to lose the 20kgs i need to lose!
Kind of random, but I love the cover of that book! Although I'm not sure I would have picked that cover as going with that book's title.